RIM Expected to Lay Off 2,000 This Week

Research in Motion is expected to announce another round of layoffs this week, reportedly about 2,000 people of its total workforce of 16,500.

Cuts could come across all units, except for those involved in the company’s upcoming BlackBerry 10 OS. Reuters says the company plans to bring its headcount down to about 10,000 by early next year.

The Globe and Mail, however, reports that job cuts have been ongoing for months as RIM struggles with declining market share, down to 7 per cent of global smartphone shipments.

The company has been quietly shedding senior managers, though some have been higher profile than others. Karima Bawa, RIM’s chief legal officer, is retiring while Patrick Spence, managing director of sales, is leaving after 14 years. The departure of senior vice president Alan Brenner, who was in charge of in-house software applications like BlackBerry Traffic, has many subordinates leaving, as well as some software specialists not involved with BlackBerry 10.

Though analysts have predicted a mass exodus of customers after two U.S. government departments dumped BlackBerry for Android and iPhones, ZDNet asserts that the more serious exodus could be from within its own ranks.